A federal appeals court ruled that many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs were issued illegally, upholding an earlier decision from a federal trade court. In a 7-4 decision, the appeals court found that Trump’s use of an international emergency powers law that permits the president to take broad trade action in response to economic emergencies “does not authorize the tariffs imposed by the Executive Orders.”
The judges delayed implementing their order until October to grant the administration time to seek review by the Supreme Court, allowing the duties to remain in place for now.
The appeals court ruling does not affect the steel and aluminum tariffs Trump ordered under Section 232, which allows the president to impose duties related to national security.
Days before the ruling, such a development seemed remote to members of the fastener industry.
Tariffs are here to stay unless the U.S. economy implodes, Industrial Fasteners Institute lobbyist Laurin Baker told the Mid-West Fastener Association on August 26. Or “when the pain gets too hard to ignore.”
“Domestic prices will go up” as a result of tariffs, he added.
Baker referred to tariffs as “a tax on U.S. companies.”
President Trump honestly believes in tariffs, and members of the 119th Congress find it “difficult to vocally oppose the president,” Baker finds. Legislators “won’t say anything publicly. They can’t be out front.”
Will Trump’s global trade war bring back U.S. manufacturing?
Ultimately, “it’s the market that will determine if we get some re-shoring in the next three to five years,” Baker said during the IFI session in conjunction with MWFA’s FSTNRWeek ’25 in Chicago.
In 2002, then-President George W. Bush’s steel tariffs on Canada were eventually lifted because the U.S. “didn’t have enough capacity” to replace Canada’s supply, Baker noted.
Any growth in domestic manufacturing increases demand for energy, he pointed out. Expect energy prices to increase for manufacturers. With Trump cutting federal funding, “solar and wind projects are stalled,” Baker said. Adding nuclear power projects will take a decade to come online.
While former President Joe Biden subsided solar and wind projects, Trump opposes wind power.
“Let’s use it all,” Baker suggested.
Based on the protracted process of the Fastener Quality Act (PL 106-34) in the 1990s, Baker advocates working with Congress as members craft legislation. He noted there are an average of 75 new members on Congress after each election, and each House district averages 750,000 people.
Baker suggested inviting especially new members for plant tours to prevent members “regulating that which they don’t understand.”
Laurin Baker is semi-retired and his Washington, DC-based firm, The Laurin Baker Group, is now led by his daughter, Jennifer Baker Reid.
